What blockchain-based money transfer services you may use?

11 July 2018

A choice of services allowing users to send money in circumvention of traditional international remittance operators in view of either high fees or for privacy reasons, is pretty wide today. Still, given the hype around the blockchain and cryptocurrency, people would like to find more applications for these emerging technologies and, even if not for actual using, out of curiosity they want to learn how and where blockchain and cryptocurrency is applied for delivering cash around the world.

Abra

Mountain View-based, Abra was founded by Bill Barhydt, a former software engineer for Goldman Sachs and former director of Netscape, in 2014. The company provides mobile wallet and exchange application available both for iOS and Android devices to enable users to make purchase, sale and hold cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies at one place.

Apart from trading operations, users may enjoy a Peer-to-Peer money transfer service, where the money is transmitted from a sender to a recipient without middlemen directly over the Bitcoin blockchain. Abra does not interrupt into the process in any way and has no access to the wallet holder’s funds, nor to the private keys linked to the funds. The bank account is not mandatory for using the service. The funds may be sent instantly to anyone, and the recipient may just withdraw the money using the application and a teller machine.

Hellobit

Hellobit, a San Francisco-based company, provides money transfer services on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Anyone across the globe may send money anywhere in the world, and a recipient will take the cash using the trusted network of exchangers. Exchangers are individuals connected to the Hellobit network, which pass verification process, and after that may become an exchanger or a delivery agent and earn money for enabling recipients to get the transferred amount in a local currency. Users may send money directly to anyone, and Hellobit will notify the addressee of the remittance made by sending a text message.

CoinPip

CoinPip is a Singapore-based company using Bitcoin technology for enabling money transfers to any country out of 40 supported nations from any mobile device. Using CoinPip, senders may initiate a money transfer by typing recipient’s details, such as email-id, currency and amount, and the transfer will be delivered within 48 hours. For same day delivery, the company charges a flat 3% fee.

Volabit

Volabit, a Mexico-based Bitcoin startup, founded in 2014, partnered with SatoshiTango in 2015 over launching a money transfer project called ‘Coinnect’. The project was introduced as a Bitcoin-powered global money remittance program, enabling the participants to send money in local currencies without concerns over the Bitcoin’s prices.

When a user sends an amount of 1,000 Argentine peso to Mexico, a recipient will get a corresponding amount at a current exchange rate with the service processing the transaction in Bitcoin. Parties on each end should have an account registered with either of the firms.

Customers don’t deal with Bitcoin and don’t need to know anything about the cryptocurrency, they may top-up their accounts using dedicated payment gateways, such as PagoFacil for SatoshiTango in Argentina.

Coins.ph

Coins.ph is a Metro Manila, Philippines-based company founded in 2014 by Ron Hose and Runar Petursson, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, as a service using cryptocurrency to create a cost-effective gateway for banking over 300 million unbanked Philippines and other customers in Southeast Asia.

Mobile application developed by Coins.ph enables users to buy and sell Bitcoin and make mobile money transfers, where the Bitcoin units are converted into Philippines pesos. The fees depend on the banks and financial institutions that could be selected from the list in the app. Some of the institutions offer direct delivery to the door, and some require customers to come to their office to take their money. Senders will need to deposit their Bitcoin balance from any Bitcoin ATM across the nation and then initiate a transfer, the request is processed with the funds delivered by the next business day.